Castlevania II: Simon's Quest (LCD game)

Castlevania II: Simon's Quest

Box - USA - 1st edition.

Developer Tiger Electronics Publisher Tiger Electronics Published 1988-??-?? Platforms LCD Handheld Genres Beat 'em up Themes Action, Horror, Vampires Series Castlevania Distribution Commercial

Castlevania II: Simon's Quest is an LCD game developed and published by Tiger Electronics in 1988. The game is a licensed product of the from Castlevania series, and is loosely based on the NES game. Although the manual suggests you'll be collecting Dracula's body parts, getting hints from villagers, and fighting off werewolves inside creepy mansions, you will do none of these things. Instead, the game is a long gauntlet of repetitive monster whipping.

Personal

Own?	No.
Won?	Yes.
Finished	Late 1980s.

My family had this game in the late 1980s, purchased at the same time as Double Dragon LCD game. I'm pretty sure my older brother got Double Dragon, and I got this one. Since I hadn't yet played the NES game, I wasn't nearly as disappointed with it as I was Double Dragon, and, the fact that it's just a better game in general, made it more enjoyable. I don't remember what happened to this game, but I'm pretty sure I beat it when I had it, got bored with it, and sold or traded it away. I hope that it will eventually be emulated like the others so I can play it again.

Review

2	2	2	1	1

Best Version: LCD

— This section contains spoilers! —

Good

• This was an affordable portable game for the time.
• They captured some of the spirit of the original. You can jump over pits, swing your whip in various directions, defeat ghosts, skeletons, bats, and Dracula. A difficult task for an LCD game.

Bad

• Some of the monsters have obvious gaps where the whip goes through them. It would have been nice if the artists camouflaged the lines a bit better.

Ugly

• Game play is really repetitive. You fight the same handful of monsters, several of which look very similar, and avoid the same hazards for the whole game.
• The sound is especially grating.

Media

Box Art

• 

  US box - front.

• 

  US box - back.

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  Japan box - front.

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  Japan box - back.

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  US handheld.

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  Japan handheld.

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  UK handheld.

Documents

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  US manual - front.

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  US manual - back.

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  Japan manual - front.

• 

  Japan manual - back.

Videos

Game play - Gets to final boss.

Representation

Strong female character?	Fail	There are no women.
Bechdel test?	Fail	There are no women.
Strong person of color character?	Fail	All the characters are white.
Queer character?	Fail	There are no queer characters.